St. Olaf students earn recognition in Goldwater, Rossing competitions
Three St. Olaf College juniors have earned recognition in two science scholarship competitions.
Kieran Berton ’18 and Laura Moore ’18 received honorable mentions in this year’s Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Competition.
Berton and Emma Dawson ’18 received honorable mentions in the Rossing Physics Scholarship competition.
The highly competitive Goldwater Scholarships are awarded each year to students who have shown significant achievement and potential in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. Since 1995, 33 St. Olaf students have received the prestigious award. This year, Berton and Moore were among the 307 students out of the 1,286 applicants who were bestowed with Honorable Mentions.
Gifts from Thomas Rossing established the Rossing Fund for Physics Education Endowment in the ELCA Foundation in 2005.
The goals of the scholarship program are to encourage top students to attend one of the 27 ELCA colleges and universities in the country, and to consider pursuing physics once they are there.
Rossing taught at St. Olaf for 14 years, is a professor emeritus of physics at Northern Illinois University, and is currently a visiting professor of music at Stanford University.
Berton and Dawson were among the 10 students chosen to receive the Honorable Mention award this year.
Berton, a music and physics major at St. Olaf, plans to pursue a Ph.D. in nanoengineering and become a career researcher.
Dawson also plans to pursue a Ph.D., with the intention of becoming a professor of physics in the future.
Moore, who is majoring in chemistry at St. Olaf, plans to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental chemistry — preferably in aquatics, and with a possible emphasis on industry’s impact on aquatic environments.
Moore, who has spent the past four summer pursuing her interest in chemistry research at the University of Minnesota and Oregon State University, sees the Goldwater Scholarship application process as an opportunity to think about her future plans.
“It has really encouraged me to continue working toward a scientific career and helped me to clarify my own goals,” she says.